Back in February I walked the river Wye from source to mouth as a starting point for a new collaboration between me and my friend, artist, and writer Patrick Farmer. We did the walk over 8 days, documenting, collecting, talking, reading, remembering, trying to stay actually near the river, and sneezing a lot, because we both got ill straight off the bat. The Wye begins in the Plynlimon hills along with the Avon and the Severn, which it meets again surrounded by M.O.D land. The river crosses the border of England and Wales many times over its course and has a rich history of disputes, industry, and natural tourism. The geology along the river changes from slates and quartz to iron and copper and huge monoliths of limestone. Below are a few pictures from along the trip. Over the next few months i'll be making glazes from collected materials, researching the origins of the millions of shards of pottery strewn along the banks, and making a new work that explores ideas of circular processes in ceramics and the natural world and our changing relationship with rivers.

Andy told me about these today - the early films of peter greenaway, apparently he worked as an archivist and so had access to so much amazing footage, he catalogued it into these art films and narrated them with stories. Love that guy…

I've spent the past few weeks throwing and turning and firing like crazy. Just the glazing and transfers left to finish the first portal series!

April 24, 2016

Back in February I went to this panel discussion as research for my current project, it was a really fascinating and diverse look at our history and relationship with the sea. Including studying whales, slavery and pollution. It was in reaction to John Akomfrahs Vertigo Sea, an incredible three screen video piece.

The introduction is quite long I would recommend skipping to 7 mins when the incredible Phillip Hoare begins.

Though I'd heard his name before, I was recently properly introduced to the thoughts of David Foster Wallace through the film The End Of the Tour and the NPR podcast Fresh Air put out a show to mark its release along with an interview with Wallace from 1997.

“An ad that pretends to be art is -- at absolute best -- like somebody who smiles warmly at you only because he wants something from you. This is dishonest, but what's sinister is the cumulative effect that such dishonesty has on us: since it offers a perfect facsimile or simulacrum of goodwill without goodwill's real spirit, it messes with our heads and eventually starts upping our defenses even in cases of genuine smiles and real art and true goodwill. It makes us feel confused and lonely and impotent and angry and scared. It causes despair.” ― David Foster Wallace